Software Deployment

First, ditch any program which requires installing in order to clean up installation data. Does that make anyone else think of the mock dictionary entry "Recursion: see 'recursion'" ?

Instead, use MSIZap from the SDK. More simply, you could rename the relevant registry entry in the 'Uninstall' branch, fooling the engine into believing that the product isn't installed. For either, you need to have local admin privileges which you presumably do.

Ian,

MSIZap is the tool he is having problem with as it's the one called windows installer clean up.

Richard,
Just try to reinstall it.
msiexec /i <path to .MSI> REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=omusav /qb

Windows Installer Clean UpLOL...you know what? I have never noticed that! I've always known it as MSIZap. Anyway, what's to install? It's a stand-alone EXE, isn't it?

I think you're right Ian.
Thought I had seen it as an MSI some way back but the MsiZap.exe file is located in the SDK so I guess that says it.
procmon should give away which resources it triggers on.

Thank you for the answers.

I've tried to reinstall using the command that you suggested Angel and it says that it's unable to open the file and to check that it's a real MS package. We're a Microsoft partner so that really isn't an issue.

I'm out of ideas other than registry hacking but I don't know what to look for. I've had a look in HKEY LOCAL MACHINE -> Software for something obvious but there's nothing that's an obvious match for either the MSI name or the progam itself.

Just to reiterate the issue:

I used to have Windows Installer Clean Up installed on a different laptop. My new one does not have it installed but when I try to install it, it gets part way through the wizard before saying that "the feature that you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable". I enter a valid alternate path to the MSI (msicuu.msi) and it says that it is not a valid installation package and that I need to try and find it somewhere else.

I then get Error 1714 described above.

Weird.

OK, this time, I did some reading.

Attempt 1
- Run:msiexec /unregister
msiexec /regserver- Try again with msicuu.msi.

Attempt 2
- Clear out your %TEMP% folder and %SystemRoot%\TEMP
- Download and install the latest version of the Windows Installer
- Try again with msicuu.msi.

BTW, from my reading, it should be the case that *NO* MSI will install with your machine in its current state. Have you tried to install any other MSIs?

Thanks VBScab but sadly it didn't work.

I have found the following description of an error on the MS website which is essentially identical to mine except that it happened using Access:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/838983/en-us

The problem seems to be that it's looking for the uninstall path, can't find it and won't accept it being re/uninstalled from anywhere else.

It looks like a registry hack but I don't know where it would be stored? Any thoughts?

And I forgot to add that I have installed ther programs after this so I am able to run other MSI's.

Update.

I found the lurking file in the registry, killed it and have managed to install the app.

Thank you all for your responses and suggestions. I'll know where to come next time!
Cheers,

Richard

Richard,

Could you provide what you removed so others can solve this issue if they get the same problem.

No problem.

Somehow my profile had retained information about my previous laptops set-up so the key that needed to be removed was the following one:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Products\0B436121B4F23D11DA3A000CF425DD25

If you look at the ProductName in the detail screen to the right hand side of the registry editor you can see what the keys pertain to. It was a slight gamble but I knew that I didn't have it installed anywhere else so it was worth doing.

Somehow my profile had retained information about my previous laptops set-up "Somehow"? Does your company use roaming profiles, by some slim chance?

Yes - indeed it does.